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Friday, July 23, 2010

Jat apologises

Seven hour delay

Jat Airways is in damage control after its passengers were delayed for more than seven hours in Thessaloniki, Greece on Wednesday because the airline’s co-pilot did not have a valid license. Disgruntled passengers were forced to wait until a replacement from Belgrade was flown in. Subsequently, many flights were delayed due to the “oversight”. “Jat Airways apologises for the delay of flight JU445 from Thessaloniki to Belgrade, on Wednesday, and other subsequent delays. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The delay was caused as a result of an administrative error and those responsible will be dealt with accordingly”, Jat’s apologetic press release reads.

Milutin Mrkonjić, the Minister for Infrastructure, who is also responsible for the aviation portfolio, said that those responsible for the seven hour delay should be penalized. He also promised that all passengers on the flight will be refunded. The ATR72 from Thessaloniki was scheduled to land at 14.50 at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport but instead touched down at 22.30.

^ The fact that one of your pilots is flying around without a valid license is a big deal. I read today that some European agency which caught this error is now monitoring all of JU's pilots and flights.

If this agency had taken its job a bit more seriously we wouldn't have had this incident.However I do not see why isn't anyone congratulating Jat on the reimbursment of the ticket price. That is a nice thing from their side to do...However it is bad that he was flying around with no licence. Let us not forget that we are hearing one side of the story here we do not know exactly why he didn't have his licence. I doubt that it is because he doesn't have it n general, most of Jats pilots are seniors meaning that they are not some young kids flying around- I would be sceptical at this point.

The flight from Rome was delayed because there was something wrong with the wheel of the plane. They had to bring a technician from Belgrade with the spare part. All of the other delays were caused because this plane was out of service and stuck in Rome the entire day

If an airline has a very tightly planned schedule and one of the A/Cs is AOG, this kind of DLYs are bound to happen... add CTOT to that - the whole rotation for that day is messed up. Doesn't even have to be a major technical defect, all it takes is that particular spare part not being on stock at your local spare part pool partner's. Been there, seen that...

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CREW OF THE WEEK

Azur Air

Click to enlarge

Russian charter carrier Azur Air introduced its new uniforms this July, displaying a stylish new look. Designed by Turkish-born Sedef Klarkan, the garments are smart and recognisable and are in harmony with the carrier’s livery. The uniforms are made up of high-quality fabrics and are convenient for the crew to wear.

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

Kenya Airways in danger of collapse

Kenya Airways has gone from being one of the region’s leading airlines and a point of national pride to one the worst performing carriers in the world. This week, the partly government-owned airline reported its largest annual loss ever, a pre-tax shortfall of 29.7 billion shillings ($293 million) for the 2014-2015 year. Investors are calling on the government to bail out the company before a full-on collapse. “We cannot just sit back and allocate huge sums to some irrelevant sectors while ignoring our national pride to collapse as we watch. Let us rescue this sinking ship”, said Chris Kirubi, chairman of Centum Investment and a major shareholder in the airline. Local politicians are decrying what they say has been mismanagement of the national carrier, Africa’s fourth largest by passenger capacity, better known as just “KQ”. Other observers blame the airline’s decline on nepotism and elitism of the leadership, while some theorize the string of losses is part of an intentional ploy to sell off the carrier cheaply. There are also criticisms that the company has hired too many foreigners - about 15% of the workforce is non-Kenyan, according to a Senate Committee inquiry into the carrier. What is certain is that the airline, and the country as a whole, has been hit by falling tourism as a result of travel warnings issued by other countries after Al-Shabaab attacks. The airline is also victim to a poorly timed expansion, a miscalculated hedge on fuel prices, reduced travel to West Africa over Ebola fears, and competition from Middle Eastern airlines like Turkish Airlines, Emirates, and Gulf, which are increasingly accounting for more flights to the region.Source: Quartz